A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1304 XERXES. XERXES.
Rooke, London, 1727. (Comp. Schill, Geschiclte Persia. Artabazanes, the eldest son of the former
der Griech. Lit. vol. ii. p. 520, &c.; Hoffmann, marriage, and Xerxes, the eldest son of the latter,
lexicon Bibliographicum, s. v.) each laid claim to the succession; but Dareins
6. A native of Cyprus, the author of a work of decided in favour of Xerxes, no doubt through the
the same kind as the preceding, entitled KivrplaKcd. influence of his mother Atossa, who completely
~(Suid. s. v.) ruled Dareius.
7. For some others of this name the reader is Xerxes succeeded his father at the beginning of
referred to Fabricius (Bibl. Gr. vol. iii. p. 1, note B. c. 485. Dareius had died in the midst of his
a., p. 833; comp. Menag. ad Diog. Larrt. ii. preparations against Greece, which had been inter59). [C. P. M.] rupted by a revolt of the Egyptians. The first care
XE'NOPHON (evoepfcv), the name of two of Xerxes was to reduce the latter people to sub(or more probably three) physicians. 1. A pupil of jection. He accordingly invaded Egypt at the
Praxagoras (Oribas. Coll. Medic. xliv. 8, p. 12, in beginning of the second year of his reign (B. c. 484),
Mai's Class. Auct. e Vatic. Codic. Edit. Rom. 1831), compelled the people again to submit to the Persian
who must therefore have lived in the fourth cen- yoke, and then returned to Persia, leaving his
tury B. C., perhaps also in the third. He is pro- brother Achaemenes, governor of Egypt. The next
bably the native of Cos mentioned by Diogenes four years were devoted to preparations for the
Latrtius (ii. 6. ~ 59); perhaps also the physician invasion of Greece. It was his object to collect a
quoted by Caelius Aurelianus (De Mlorb. Chrson. ii. mighty armament, which might not simply be'suffi13, p. 416). It is also shown by M. Littrd cient to conquer Europe, but which might display
(Oeuvres d'Ipiipocr. vol. i. pp. 75, 76) that he is the the power and magnificence of the greatest monarch
person alluded to, but not zuamed, by Galen (Corn- of the world. Troops were gathered together from
mrent. in Hippocr. P'rognzost. i. 4, vol. xviii. pt. ii. all quarters of the wide-spread Persian empire, and
p. 19); and therefore he is perhaps also the phy- even the most distant nations subject to his sway
sician mentioned by the same author (De Dieb. were required to send their contingents. Critalla
Decret. ii. 7, vol. ix. p. 872), as having written on in Cappadocia was the place of meeting, and there
the subject of critical days. they came pouring in, nomad hordes from the
2. One of the followers of Erasistratus, who lived steppes of central Asia, dark-coloured tribes from
somewhat earlier than Apollonius of Memphis the rivers flowing into the Illdus, and negroes from
(Galen, filtrod. c. 10, vol. xiv. p. 7 00), and there- the inland parts of Africa, as well as fromn all the
fore in the third century a. C., perhaps also in the intermediate countries. Immense stores of provifourth. He is by some modern writers supposed sions were at the same time collected from all parts
to be the same person as the physician mentioned of the Persian empire, and deposited at suitable
above; but it is hardly probable that the same stations along the line of march. The fleet was
person could have been pupil to both Praxagoras furnished by the Phoenicians, Ionians and other
and Erasistratus. He wrote a work on the names maritime nations subject to the Persians. An
of the parts of the human body. (Galen, 1. c.) It agreement also was made with the Carthaginians,
is not certain which of these two physicans is the that they should attack the Greek cities in Sicily
person quoted by Oribasius (ibid. xlv. 11, p. 41), and Italy, while Xerxes invaded the mother connand Soranus. (De Axrte Obstetr. p. 257, ed. Dietz.) try. Two great works were at the same time
3. A native of Cos,and a descendant of the family undertaken, which might bear witness to the
of the Asclepiadae, who was a physician to the em- grandeur and power of the Persian monarch. He
peror Claudius, and who obtained from him certain ordered that a bridge of boats should be thrown
privileges for his native island. He was afterwards across the Hellespont, and that a canal should be
induced by Agrippina to murder the emperor by cut through the isthmus of Mount Athos, on which
means of a poisoned feather, which he introduced the fleet of Mardonius had been wrecked in B. c.
into his mouth under the pretence of making him 492. The bridge across the Hellespont stretched
vomit, A. D. 54. (Tac. Ann. xii. 61, 67.) [W. A. G.] from the neighbourhood of Abydos on the Asiatic
XE'NOPHON, artists. 1. A sculptor, of Athens, side to the coast between Sestos and Madytus on
contemporary with the elder Cephisodotsus, in con- the European, where the strait is about an English
junction with whom he made the statue of Zeus, mile in breadth. The work was entrusted to
which is described under CEPHISODOTUS, No. 1, Phoenicians and Egyptians; but after it had been
p. 667, b. In another passage, Pausanias mentions completed, it was destroyed by a violent storm.
the statue of Fortune, carrying her son Plutus, in Xerxes was so enraged that he caused the heads
her temple at Thebes, the face and hands of which, of the chief engineers to be cut off, and commanded
the Thebans said, were made by Xenophon of that the strait itself should be scourged, and a set
Athens, and the rest of the work by a native of fetters cast into it. A new bridge was conartist; named Callistonicus. (Paus. ix. 16. ~ 1.) structed, of which Herodotus has left us a minute
2. A sculptor, of Paros, of whom nothing is account (viii. 36). There were in fact two bridges
known, beyond the mention of his name by Dio- formed of two lines of ships; but our limits prevent
genes Laertius (ii. 59). [P. S.] us from entering into the details of their construcXERXES I. (SEp5pas), king of Persia B. c. 485 tion. The canal cut through the isthmus of Mount
-465. The name is said by Herodotus (vi. 98) Athos from the Strymonic to the Toronaic gulph was
to signify the warrior, but it is probably the same about a mile and a half long, and was broad and
word as the Zend ksathra and the Sanscrit kshatra, deep enough for two triremes to sail abreast. This
"a king." Xerxes was the son of Dareius and work is said to have occupied a multitude of workAtossa. Dareius was married twice. By his first men for a space of three years. That these works
wife, the daughter of Gobryas, he had three chil- were unnecessary is no proof that they were never
dren before he was raised to the throne; and by executed; for Xerxes' invasion of Greece must not
his second wife, Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, he be judged by the necessities or probabilities of any
had four children after he had become king of ordinary war. It was rather a lavish display of